Peeking at Different Dimensions
by LordArchanon
Summary: One shots, plot bunnies that I don't have the patience to do anything more with, and other miscellaneous stuff. Will probably contain crossovers.


So, this was just a short idea I had after reading The Gathering Storm and wondering about the nature of the Veil. I don't have the patience to consider it nor to deal with the inevitable complaints if I *did* continue it and the rescue didn't match up to what the rescue scene in WoT would be. Nonetheless, this is primarily a Harry Potter oneshot.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Wheel of Time and never will.

The black curtain fluttered in a nonexistent wind as Sirius fell through the arch of the Veil.

Harry woke screaming, and yet he could not get the vision of the redstone arch out of his mind.

****

The redstone archway resonated with sound beyond human hearing and yet Harry could hear.

He did not scream as he awoke, but found himself absentmindedly humming the whole next day.

****

The formless voices resolved themselves into one, whispering sibilantly of rules, of fire and music and iron.

Harry found himself absentmindedly sketching the intricate patterns of the arch when he didn't pay attention.

****

He dreamt of Sirius, but not in the usual manner, no nightmares of his death from which Harry awoke screaming. His godfather smiled sadly at him.

"I can't tell you much, Harry, but I'm not dead – not really. They're bound by the pact and I asked to see you, so they had to let me. Remember your dreams, Pronglet. I can't stay, but I'll try to come back when I can."

****

He'd asked Hermione to look for legends that involved redstone gateways, carefully keeping his true interest hidden. She had looked at him suspiciously, but agreed. Anything to keep signs of life in her best friend.

He was disappointed when she turned up nothing, but shrugged it off. Somehow, he had known it wouldn't be that easy.

****

Sirius visited him again that night. Harry told him of the failure of the search. His godfather just smiled crookedly and told him that he knew it wouldn't be that easy. He just nodded, and smiled, and enjoyed the time they had together.

He pretended to ignore the odd hand motions Sirius had made, but the next day he dug out the mirror and the map.

****

Ron had looked at him oddly when he took out Hagrid's pipe from his first year and began fingering it, but shrugged it off. Harry had smiled to himself as he sounded out the lullabies the Dursleys had never sang to him, brokenly at first but steadily more fluid.

****

Dumbledore had merely twinkled when he had entered the Headmaster's office and without preamble asked for the Sword of Gryffindor. The Leader of the Light had handed it over without fuss and mentioned a particular charm to replace bad air with good.

Harry shook his head in amusement at the Headmaster's seeming omniscience as he dissected the partially rotted basilisk and otherwise cleaned up the Chamber of Secrets. Steel sung through the air as he ran through a sword kata from a book from the library. Hermione would be so proud of him, he thought, if this had been for school.

****

Fawkes chirped and nuzzled his hand on his next visit to the Headmaster's office to see the life of Tom Riddle. Before he left, Harry had pulled out his pipe and played a duet with the laughing phoenix.

The Headmaster's eyes twinkled brighter than stars as he smiled knowingly at Harry, and he grinned back.

****

"Incendio!"

The D.A. paused in the lesson of the day and stared at the roaring flames that had emerged from his wand and engulfed the practice dummy. He looked back with a raised eyebrow and they slowly went back to what they had been doing. Harry frowned at his wand. Too slow. He'd have to work harder.

****

He spoke to Sirius again one night, and learned that he was visiting Dumbledore too.

"One of the things I asked for was to be able to help our side in the war, so I can see things and give Dumbledore hints. Ask him if you can talk to the Sorting Hat next time you're in there, by the way – it knows a lot of _obscure_ _details_ about all sorts of things, and that could help you with Tom."

Harry caught the emphasis. He supposed it was part of the rules Sirius apparently had to live by, so he nodded and once again just enjoyed being with the closest thing he'd ever had to a father.

****

His conversation with the Hat had gone well; it had been highly amused by his brashness in once again barging into the Headmaster's office to get something. It had chided him that just because he was in Gryffindor was no reason to abandon Slytherin slyness even if he stood against the current rabble in that house, then left him with two hints: Aelfinn and Eelfinn. Hermione was extremely proud when he spent the next two weeks holed up in the library in his spare time, despite the subject matter.

She was the one to find the clue, a short mention in a book about the legend of the Farmer King. By legend, one of his best friends had gone through a standing door and gotten three answers. Later, the same companion had found a redstone doorway and gotten three wishes, but been forced to pay a price that almost cost him his life. The brief mentions of the inhabitants of the doorway mentioned one thing consistently: Their claim of an ancient pact to bring no fire, no music, no iron.

Harry smiled.

------

So, that's that. I'm actually rather fond of it.


End file.
